Several countries qualify for OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup

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Teams representing Guatemala, Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, Italy, Finland, Canada, Portugal and the Philippines have qualified and will complete at this month's OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup in China on the Olazábal Course at Mission Hills. The nine qualifying teams will join teams from 18 exempt countries and the host nation as 28 two-man teams representing different countries from across the globe, squaring off for the $1.75 million winner's share of the $5.5 million purse, Nov. 27-30.

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Edoardo Molinari will compete with his brother Francesco Molinari for Italy.

Three winning teams from each of the three qualifying tournaments held in Asia, Europe and South America helped round out the field.

Korea's Bae Sang-Moon and Kim Hyung-Tae won Asia's qualifier at the Fortis International Challenge. They will both be playing in the first World Cup of their careers, but Bae is no stranger to facing top-ranked competition. Earlier this year, the 22-year-old defeated PGA TOUR players Ian Poulter and Anthony Kim at the Asian Tour's $1 million Korea Open. He ranks No. 6 on the Asian Tour's Order of Merit.

Angelo Que and Mars Pucay of the Philippines and Italy's Francesco Molinari and Edoardo Molinari placed 2nd and 3rd in Asia's qualifier to join the field. It will be Que's maiden trip to the World Cup and Pucay's second after he also qualified back in 1999 at Kota Permai.

The Molinari brothers outlasted Nigeria's Oyebanji Gboyega and Odoh Andrew Oche, who were trying to become their country's first team to qualify for the World Cup. Francesco Molinari, 26 years old and two years younger than his playing partner and brother, Edoardo, thrilled the Milanese crowds by capturing the Telecom Italian Open in 2006. It marked the first victory in the event by an Italian since Massimo Mannelli 26 years earlier. Francesco is No. 24 on the 2008 European Tour Order of Merit.

Guatemala's Alejandro Villavicencio and Pablo Acuńa finished atop the leaderboard at the Marriott Venezuela Playa Grande Nations Cup, the South American qualifier. Villavicencio, 27, is a member of the Tour de las Americas and the European Challenge Tour. Both he and Acuna, a 24-year-old University of Houston graduate, were born in Guatemala City and will be playing in their first World Cup.

Joining Guatemala from the South American qualifier are Mexico's Daniel De León and Oscar Serna and Venezuela's Miguel Martinez and Raul Sanz. De León will be representing Mexico in the World Cup for the first time, while the 30-year-old Serna has played in the event once before, in 1997. Sanz, the 26-year old Venezuelan, realized a long-time goal by qualifying for the World Cup. He will be playing alongside 38-year-old Miguel Martinez, who has played in three previous OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup events, the last of which came in 2000 in Argentina.

The final qualifier was staged at the Sierra Golf Club, Wejherowo, Poland. Finland's Roope Kakko and Mikko Korhonen won by eight strokes over Canada's Graham DeLaet and Wes Heffernan, with Portugal's Tiago Cruz and Ricardo Santos rounding out the qualifiers. Heffernan teamed with Mike Weir at last year's OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup. Both he and DeLaet have won on the Canadian Tour this season have both spent much of the season in the top 5 on their home Tour's Order of Merit.

Canadian industrialist John Jay Hopkins founded the International Golf Association in 1953, with a mission to spread international goodwill through golf. The OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup entered a new era in its history last year with a new title sponsor in OMEGA, a permanent home at Mission Hills Golf Club and an expanded field to 28 teams.